Nov. 22, 1963, Was The Day America's Music Changed

November 22, 2003|By Rick Shaw Special Correspondent

Nov. 22, 1963, marked a turning point in U.S. history. Forty years ago John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and Americans realized life would never be the same. Along with the 40th anniversary of JFK's death comes the realization that Top 40 music changed beginning with that day.

I was on the air at a Top 40 radio station in South Florida that day in 1963. I remember it as if it were yesterday.

The kids loved Kennedy. They were caught up in the whole Camelot thing and life seemed carefree and perfect, so the assassination may have hit them the hardest. I took their calls all night long. They couldn't understand why anyone would shoot JFK. It was like the wind was let out of everyone and everything.

In the days following the assassination, it seemed everything came to a standstill. When teens were ready to start listening again, they had a whole new mind-set, almost as if they needed some sort of fling after a funeral. I think they were searching for something different -- something rebellious, loud and fast to fill the chasm that everyone of that era felt immediately after Nov. 22.

Enter the Beatles and the many British rock artists that followed. Groups such as the Kinks, Animals and Rolling Stones brought with them driving beats and threads of heavy bass that almost seemed like a resurrection of the original rock 'n' roll from which American music had begun straying. Their clothes were bright and mod. They had long, moppish hair that parents decried. They had an edge. It was what the music world needed after the gloom of the Kennedy assassination.

As I recall, the No. 1 song on the U.S. music charts on Nov. 22, 1963, was Dominique by the Singing Nun and the year's overall top single was Sugar Shack by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. The Beatles' release of Please Please Me earlier that year had been a bomb but then, during the first weeks of 1964 -- less than two months after the assassination -- I Want to Hold Your Hand soared to the top spot on music charts and soon She Loves You and the re-release of Please Please Me were second and third respectively. And when the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, musical history was re-written.

Would the British version of rock 'n' roll have been as big a phenomenon if Kennedy had not been assassinated? We'll never know for sure. But that tragedy had us all changing directions. If nothing else, it opened the door for the Beatles and the whole British invasion.

There's no doubt about it, the American Top 40 music scene had changed. In 1963 there was not one British group in the year's Top 20 rock 'n' roll groups. In 1964, there were 19. The whole tenor of rock 'n' roll changed within a month of JFK's death.

I've been on the air here for more than 43 years now and, along with other longtime South Floridians, have endured any number of difficult periods, from JFK's assassination, Challenger and 9-11, to Mariel, Overtown and Hurricane Andrew and plenty in between. Through it all I've been privileged to be the ear of my audience and offer whatever perspective I could. It's difficult to rank the impact of historical events, but JFK's assassination stands out in my mind.

It was the day the music changed.

Rick Shaw is co-host, with Donna Davis, of the Rick & Donna morning show on Majic 102.7 FM.